No knots or hard sections in these vine charcoals. They produce a wide range of values and line widths, depending on pressures and angles you use. Also, so far, no breaking during use, a first in my experience. Very happy. These are the best vine charcoals I've ever used.

The charcoal is very nice for drawing. I like the extra soft. It makes erasing very easy. I teach mostly with the extra soft charcoal because a swipe with a tissue will take away a mistake. The finished drawing can be permanent with fixative.

We are newbie artists, so my ratings as to whether this is better than another product mean NOTHING (but the form forced me to choose something). Our teacher recommended that we buy this product to draw a sketch on our canvas before painting over with acrylic. It was SO DARK. I pressed less firmly than I usually do, but did not use a "whisper-soft" touch, either. I ended up having to paint over the line it created 2 or 3 times in an yellow area of my painting. My children did not make this effort and they now have a black line through their sunny sky. Maybe it's my inexperience, but I am tempted to us a plain ole pencil for this particular task in the future.

The price of this product compared to similar, competitive alternatives is:

Average

Bottom LineYes, I would recommend this to a friend

Merchant response: For use on canvas underpainting, we would suggest a vine charcoal instead of willow. Vine charcoal is more gray than black. Also, a hard charcoal will produce an even lighter tone than soft, but may be slightly more difficult to draw with. Please feel welcome to contact our Product Experts at 1-800-933-2542 if you would like any further information about any of our products!